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The Irony of the Tea Party

Saturday, January 29, 2011


© Jen Sorensen

I am continually impressed that the Tea Party has gotten so many people to protest against their own interests.

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Crushing Dissent

Saturday, January 29, 2011


© Glenn McCoy

There seem to be three possibilities for the general riots in Egypt: Mubarak crushes the dissenters, the dissenters force Mubarak to reform the government, or (like Tunisia) Mubarak leaves Egypt. What will happen, or even what would be best for Egypt, is anyone’s guess.

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Late Night Political Humor

Saturday, January 29, 2011

“Obama is huge in the polls these days. His popularity is soaring. Even conservatives are coming around. 30 percent of them now believe Obama deserves a Green Card.” – Bill Maher

“It was quite a sight to see Obama next to President Hu. Obama has a Nobel Peace Prize in his basement, and Hu has a Nobel Peace prize winner in his.” – Bill Maher

“While visiting Chicago, President Hu met with Cubs fans. Apparently, he wanted to see some Americans who have suffered more human rights violations than his own people.” – Jay Leno

“Even though President Hu was only in Chicago for two days, by the Rahm Emanuel standard, he was able to establish residency and can now run for mayor of Chicago.” – Jay Leno

“This picture of Obama with President Hu of China has people wondering if our President is dying his hair. Maybe he’s been using a little Just For Presidents.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Boehner was subject to some controversy because the President hosted President Hu of China this week, and Boehner was invited to the State Dinner and did not come. President Hu was very disappointed. He promised his friends back home that he would get a picture with ‘orange man who leaks.” – Bill Maher

“While in Washington, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with members of Congress. It was very festive as the leader of Red China met with our orange speaker of the House.” – Jay Leno

“Next week Boehner will be sitting behind Obama at the State of the Union address. I think Obama should purposely try to embarrass him by telling the story of Old Yeller. The State of Our Union is strong, but not so good for one special dog.'” – Bill Maher

“Every Republican in Congress voted to repeal the health care legislation. They admitted it was symbolic, but it does enable Republicans to brag in campaign ads next year that they voted to let poor people die.” – Bill Maher

“What amazes me is that that kind of stuff never makes John Boehner cry. […] Congress this week was recognizing the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, a man that John Boehner doesn’t like, has no allegiance with politically, and it was 50 years ago. He cried. This guy is an ad for Paxil.” – Bill Maher

“Good news. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords is able stand up and the next stop is rehab. Now if we could only say the same thing about Charlie Sheen. In a related story, Sarah Palin’s doctors say that any idea that entered her brain this week passed straight through and came out the other side.” – Bill Maher

“‘The National Enquirer’ says Sarah Palin’s husband Todd has been having an affair with a massage therapist who’s also been arrested for prostitution. What is it with all these massage therapists? Al Gore, Brett Favre, and now Todd Palin. When will one of these stories have a happy ending?” – Jay Leno

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Privatize War

Friday, January 28, 2011

Satire from Chris Otte.

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Is WikiLeaks Responsible for the Current Arab Pro-Democracy Movement?

Friday, January 28, 2011

A democratic revolution in Tunisia. Pro-democracy demonstrations in Egypt. Foreign Policy magazine says “In one fell swoop, the candor of the cables released by WikiLeaks did more for Arab democracy than decades of backstage U.S. diplomacy.”

How? They helped the Tunisian people realize that it was obvious to the rest of the world what they thought only they knew — that their government was corrupt, repressive, and downright rotten to the core. It also showed them that the US would not back the Tunisian leader, giving them hope that change was possible.

Now the same thing is starting in Egypt and there are stirrings in other countries with repressive governments. Maybe we should stop persecuting Julian Assange, and instead award him the Nobel Peace Prize.

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The Supreme Party

Thursday, January 27, 2011


© Rex Babin

Monday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia appeared at an event organized by the House Tea Party caucus and Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, but he didn’t attend the State of the Union address the following night. This has caused some people to claim that conservative justices don’t even feel the need to appear to be impartial. Supreme Court justices are supposed to be non-partisan.

In addition, Justice Clarence Thomas has been criticized because his wife organized a Tea Party event herself, which urged conservatives to fight for the repeal of Obama’s health care reform bill. Conservatives are trying to get the bill declared unconstitutional, and it is widely assumed that this issue will eventually come up before the Supreme Court, so it looks pretty bad to have the wife of a justice actively fighting against the bill.

Coincidentally, on Monday Thomas amended his financial disclosure form after Common Cause pointed out that on his then current form, Thomas had marked that his wife had no previous income, when in fact she had worked 11 years for the conservative Heritage Foundation, among other jobs totaling $686,589. All Federal judges are required by law to disclose income earned by their spouses. Thomas claimed that it was a simple mistake, but lying on disclosure forms can be prosecuted as a felony. I’m waiting for Thomas to claim that he was ignorant of the law.

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Fox News sinks to new low

Thursday, January 27, 2011

This has got to be one of the most juvenile things ever done by Fox News. They took Obama’s State of the Union address and specifically edited it and inserted their own soundtrack of — literally — crickets chirping after Obama makes two slightly humorous comments. Then they make fun of Obama because his jokes didn’t elicit more laughter. Watch it:

Well, we couldn’t hear any laughter because you so crudely edited it out. If you listen to the actual video of his speech (at 34 and 48 minutes), he got both laughter and applause for these jokes.

How unfair and unbalanced can you get?

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Utah to adopt official state gun?

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Most states have an official state flower, or bird. But a bill introduced in Utah wants to create an official state firearm. And their weapon of choice? The Browning M1911 semi-automatic pistol.

Not every politician in Utah supports the measure, questioning whether they should honor semi-automatic pistols — the choice weapon for those who are committing massacre, including the recent shootings in Arizona. And Virginia Tech. And Fort Hood.

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Fox Calling the Kettle Black

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

My question is, does Megyn Kelly actually believe the lies she tells, or does she simply not know the difference between reality and fantasy?

ROUND TWO: Bill O’Reilly goes to the defense of Megyn Kelly and shows that he has an equally weak grasp of reality:

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Sex in the Military

Wednesday, January 26, 2011


© Ted Rall

I’m not entirely sure the point that Rall is trying to make, but this comic is hilarious nonetheless.

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Government for and by the Corporations

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I am a strong Obama supporter. But that doesn’t mean I give him a pass when he makes a mistake, even one as stupid as this one.

Obama announced Monday that he is appointing Donald Verrilli to be solicitor general, the government’s top lawyer and the position vacated by Elena Kagan when she was appointed to the Supreme Court. Before joining the government in 2009, Verrilli was involved in a number of prominent cases for the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). He represented the companies that shut down Grokster, he led a team of lawyers that sued Google for $1 billion on behalf of Viacom, arguing that Google owned site YouTube was responsible for massive copyright violations, and he won a $220,000 judgement against a Minnesota woman for file sharing 24 songs.

I believe the modern excessive expansion of copyright law has had a stifling effect on innovation and even on the economy of this country. I am not against copyrights, but as the founding fathers knew, they must be balanced against the public interest. I guess throwing the entertainment industry a bone is more important politically.

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Congressional Hearing

Tuesday, January 25, 2011


© Jim Morin

Are they purposely ignoring us, or do they have a hearing problem?

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Late Night Chinese Political Humor

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

“Chinese President Hu Jintao is visiting us. When a country owes you a billion dollars they have a problem. When they owe you a trillion dollars, YOU have a problem. We’re too big to fail!” – Jon Stewart

“The White House held a state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao. There were 200 people, a six-course dinner, and champagne. It was so expensive that we had to borrow money from China for the dinner.” – David Letterman

“Chinese President Hu Jintao had dinner at the White House with President Obama and first lady Michelle. They were going to exchange gifts from the two countries, but unfortunately everything in our country is now made in their country, so they couldn’t do any exchanging.” – Jay Leno

“At the state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao, they served lobster. Which meant that for once, Joe Biden wasn’t the only one wearing a bib.” – Jimmy Fallon

“At the state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao, Hu opened a fortune cookie that said, ‘You will lend us another trillion dollars.'” – Conan O’Brien

“The cellist Yo-Yo Ma was there. It’s the first yoyo we’ve had in the White House since George W. Bush.” – David Letterman

“Barbra Streisand was also at the White House dinner. Apparently, Hu wanted to meet a Focker.” – David Letterman

“There was one really awkward moment when Hu found out that Obama was a Nobel Peace Prize winner and, out of force of habit, tried to have him arrested.” – Jay Leno

“Chinese President Hu Jintao visited President Obama at the White House yesterday. There was one very awkward moment when the Chinese President met the Obama daughters and asked, ‘So, which factory do you work at?'” – Jay Leno

“Hu told President Obama’s 9-year-old daughter, Sasha, that she’s a pretty little girl and asked her how many iPods she could make in an hour.” – Conan O’Brien

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State of the Hate

Tuesday, January 25, 2011


© Steve Sack

Even worse, the Republican members of the Supreme Court will likely boycott the state of the union address, because last year Obama criticized the court’s “Citizens United” decision.

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Do as I say, not as I do

Monday, January 24, 2011

Obama has a mixed result on his promises to make government more transparent. Over at PolitiFact, of the 35 promises that Obama made relating to government transparency, they rate only five completely kept, three more kept but with some compromises, and 15 in the works, while six of them are rated as broken, and six more as stalled.

Republicans took advantage of this in their “Pledge to America”, bashing Democrats for limiting openness and debate” during the legislative process, and promising to “ensure that bills are debated and discussed in the public square”. The Pledge also promises that the GOP “will fight to ensure transparency and accountability in Congress and throughout government”. When John Boehner recently took the helm of the House, he said “Above all else, we will welcome the battle of ideas, encourage it, and engage in it—openly, honestly, and respectfully.”

So should we be surprised when last week, Eric Cantor, the Republican Whip, announced plans to eliminate the Presidential Election Fund (you know, where on your income tax form you can donate three dollars to the presidential election). This fund was introduced after the Watergate scandal (because Nixon was caught receiving illegal campaign funds from big corporations), and has been highly successful — every presidential candidate from the two major parties since then has opted into the public financing system, with the exception of Obama.

There is widespread agreement among both parties that the public financing system needs updating, and there have been several bills — sponsored by Congressmen in both parties — to reform it, but scrapping it would only give big corporations even more power in presidential elections by making them the overwhelming source of money in our increasingly expensive elections.

But the real hypocrisy is that the GOP is trying to pass this bill with no transparency at all. No hearings have been held, nor has a single committee in Congress even discussed the bill. So after pledging “openness and debate” and promising that bills will be “debated and discussed in the public square”, just a few days after taking power in the House they are going back on this promise entirely and instead are doing a secretive end run.

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